The present application relates generally to clamping mechanisms and more particularly to clamps that secure to fabrics.
In 2007, with 8,580 total cases of musculoskeletal injuries, direct care registered nursing ranked seventh among all occupations where musculoskeletal injuries resulted in days away from work. Also in 2007, nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants sustained 24,340 musculoskeletal injuries, the second highest of any occupation. The physical demands of the nursing profession lead many nurses to leave the profession. Moreover, fifty-two percent of nurses complain of chronic back pain and thirty-eight percent suffer from pain severe enough to require leave from work.
The leading cause of these injuries is the result of lifting, transferring, and repositioning of patients. According to William Marras, a leading biomechanics researcher from Ohio State University, “What makes patient lifting difficult is that employees cannot use their leg muscles because they are leaning over the edge of the bed. They have to use their back muscles to haul the patients up, and that's not easy.”
In the hospital, nurses use a pull sheet to reposition patients using their bare hands. Pulling the patient that is lying down laterally toward the head of the bed requires at least two people each of whom position him or herself on either side of the bed. Each person then grabs the lateral ends of the pull sheet that has been positioned underneath the patient, followed by a quick pull of the sheet in the desired direction, e.g., towards the head of the bed. To reposition a patient on his or her side, one employee reaches over the patient to the opposite side of the bed and pulls on the lateral end of the sheet over the patient and in a direction toward the employee thereby causing the patient to tilt in that direction. Another person can then place pillows behind the patient's back to maintain the patient on his or her side. These motions place the nurses in precarious situations which may lead to lower back, shoulder, arm, and wrist injuries.
Accordingly, there is a need for devices and methods of using these devices that assist users in moving and repositioning patients with a pull sheet or with any other fabric that reduce the risk of these and other types of injuries.